A Forum for Vigorous Debate, Cornerstone of Democracy

***********************************************************************************************************************************A FORUM FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND VIGOROUS DEBATE, CORNERSTONES OF DEMOCRACY[For the journal(guidelines, focus, etc.), go to www.theamericandissident.org].Encouraged censorship and self-censorship seem to have become popular in America today. Those who censor others, not just self, tend to favor the term "moderate," as opposed to "censor" and "moderation" to "censorship." But that doesn't change what they do. They still act as Little Caesars or Big Brother protectors of the thin-skinned. Democracy, however, demands a tough populace, not so easily offended. On this blog, and to buck the trend of censorship, banning, and ostracizing, comments are NEVER "moderated." Rarely (almost NEVER) do the targets of these blog entries respond in an effort to defend themselves with cogent counter-argumentation. This blog is testimony to how little academics, poets, critics, newspaper editors, cartoonists, political hacks, cultural council apparatchiks, librarians et al appreciate VIGOROUS DEBATE, cornerstone of democracy. Clearly, far too many of them could likely prosper just fine in places like communist China and Cuba or Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Mark Jenkins

EDITORIAL--Issue #32

Torment people with the truth. I know I do. It feels good! Because truth is the new hate speech. Truth is the new hate.

—Pamela Geller

Censored and Banned

The front cover of this issue was inspired by an article in the Washington Post by Mark Jenkins and depicts a couple of local DC arts regulators: Touchstone Gallery Director Ksenia Grishkova and Judge, uh, Juror-Curator Jayme McLellan.

Jenkins is also depicted, though as a lapdog arts hagiographer. He would not provide his photo, and I could not find one on the internet. His article concerned Touchstone Gallery, based in Washington, D.C., which held an “Art as Politics” exhibit, though seemed really to have been “Art as PC-Propaganda.”

Every region and state in the country has its cultural council, art associations, art galleries, art museums, and art blablabla manned and womaned by art apparatchiks, usually with lofty titles. These organizations are usually well-funded with taxpayer money and usually represent fine arts examples of cooptation by business (i.e., chambers of commerce), which also control government. And of course they usually broadcast their hypocrisy, as in “All the Arts for All of Us” (Cultural Center of Cape Cod) and “We abhor censorship of any kind” (Touchstone Gallery blogger Rosemary Luckett). As for the latter, my comments were eliminated, uh, censored. Luckett, however, didn’t eliminate, uh, censor, Arielle K. Masters’ comment: “Love that circus tent quilt!” For the brief correspondence I had with Luckett and Jenkins, see the Literary Letters rubric.

America seems to have a paucity of courageous artists willing to stand up and speak rude truth to art apparatchiks. Instead, most beggar for funding and seek to climb up the careerist see-no-evil, speak-no-evil art ladder. They don’t care about free speech. They don’t need free speech. They’re content with PC-speech. What they want is limelight, invitations, grants, and awards. For my counter-essay vis-a-vis Jenkins, see Art in PC-landia.

On another note, The American Dissident was banned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice… with no mention of the reason for the action. Those in power, from the little Lucy Loomis library directors on up to the faceless correctional institution review committee members, are not obligated to explain their totatitarian actions. Inmate Steven Hostottle was published in the last two issues of The American Dissident, so I’d sent him a few copies. Sadly, the faceless committee members refused to give them to him. Clearly, they’d leafed through the copies, didn’t like what they saw, so decided to ban the magazine. Hostottle’s poems did not praise life in one of their Texas jail cells. See his letter at the end of the Literary Letters rubric.

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Trigger Warning: This Blog May Contain Highly Offensive Content for Comfortably Entrenched Academics, Poets of the Status Quo, Politically-Correct Indoctrinees, and Gatekeepers of All Shades, Colors, Ages, and Sexual Orientations.

VERITAS NUMQUAM PERIT

Locate what you may believe to be errors in these blog entries, and I will rectify them, if in fact errors, and readily admit wrong for each and every one of them. To dismiss the writing and cartoon sketches, however, with ad hominem and quips simply serves to deflect attention from their truths. When you choose to dismiss someone as "angry" and "bitter," one must assume you are simply projecting your own anger and bitterness. Try instead logical point-by-point counter-argumentation.